Andrew Kerth 
One of the best things about baseball is that the sport refuses to throw away its past. Walk into Fenway Park or Wrigley Field and you are standing somewhere a fan from 1920 would still recognize, watching a game on ground that has held more than a century of it. No other major American sport … Read more
Baseball is a game of big numbers, but not every ballpark is built to pack in a huge crowd. While Dodger Stadium seats 56,000, the smallest park in the majors holds barely a fifth of that. Some of these intimate venues are temporary homes in transition, while others are beloved classics where the small size … Read more
It looks like the best seat in the house. You are courtside for every game, a few feet from the biggest stars in basketball, and you are technically on the payroll of an NBA team. So it is no surprise that one of the most searched questions about life around the league is a simple … Read more
There is no stage in basketball brighter than the NBA Finals, which is what makes a comeback there feel almost impossible. The defense tightens, every possession is scrutinized, and a big lead is supposed to be safe. So when a team claws back from 20 or more points down on this stage, it becomes instant … Read more
An NBA arena on a packed night is one of the loudest, most electric places in sports. But not every building holds the same crowd. The gap between the league’s largest arena and its smallest is more than 4,000 seats, which is the difference between a cavernous big-market house and a tighter, louder room. So … Read more
Walk into any sporting goods store and you will find basketballs in at least four different sizes, each meant for a different age. Hand a six-year-old a full-size men’s ball and they physically cannot shoot it with proper form, which builds bad habits that are hard to fix later. So which size does a 9-year-old … Read more
Buying a football for a young player sounds simple until you get to the store and find four or five different sizes, each labeled for a different age. Hand a six-year-old a regulation NFL ball and they physically can’t grip it, which wrecks their throwing technique before it ever develops. Get it right and they … Read more
The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award in football, the closest thing the sport has to a most valuable player trophy. Every year it crowns the best player in the world, and the list of names who have lifted it reads like a history of the game itself. But how long has it … Read more
The penalty shootout is one of the most nerve-wracking spectacles in all of sports. After 120 minutes of soccer with no winner, the entire match comes down to a series of one-on-one duels between a kicker and a goalkeeper from 12 yards out. For new fans, though, the exact rules can be a blur of … Read more
If you’ve ever watched a big soccer match end level after 90 minutes, you’ve seen the game roll on into extra time. For new fans — especially in the U.S., where we tend to call it “overtime” — the rules can be genuinely confusing. Does the first goal win it? How long does it actually … Read more